"A special area of focus, which the Russian president and I constantly draw attention to, is joint ventures. Here in Belarus and in your region. In mechanical engineering, agriculture, and science," the head of state said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that Belarus was cautious in terms of allowing foreign companies to work at large industrial enterprises. "We were very cautious about giving foreigners an access to our manufacturing sector. Therefore, the Western sanctions did not hit us as badly as, for example, KAMAZ. First of all, the Germans had access there,” the president said. “We did not favor this idea particularly in machine building. Indeed, the Germans worked here. We had MAZ - MAN and Neoplan at MAZ. But when the contract ended, I thanked them and said that we would continue by ourselves. We would do it whatever it might cost us, whatever difficulties we might face. By the way, we promoted such cooperation projects in Russia. But your leaders at that time heavily favored the Germans or the Americans as they believed that they would bring technology and that everything would be tip top..."
"Nevertheless, the Russian president and I agreed that Russia and Belarus will share their advanced technologies with each other. But we need to set up joint ventures. Then It will put a stop to speculations about a single state, a single currency and so on. The economy will take us to where we need to be. The economy is the foundation of any relationship. We are moving along this path," Aleksandr Lukashenko concluded.
Written by belta.by
